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Underground city

Hello everyone! I'm working on this image of a huge underground cavern with tribes (tho I've only worked on in so far) that have made their homes near the waterfalls that flow in.
I would love to hear what's going right and what needs to be fixed. Thanks!

Where is the water coming from? Is it 3 seperate creeks flowing in seperate directions meeting almost at the same point then falling down 3 seperate holes? Not very feasible..How did the holes get there in the first place? If the water has been there long enough for a city to be built around it, why hasn't it eroded the rock of the hole down so that it's running down a wall by this time? For that matter, if it is splashing so close to the edge where it falls for so long, why is that not eroded? If the water is going around the city every day to head downhill, you think that would be the first part to go, too.

I wouldn't worry about geological realism so much...but you can definitely have picked a way better perspective and composition to make this more interesting. First off, your village which I'd reckon is the focal point, sits right in the middle of the composition. Then you have all these really lit waterfalls competing for the eyes attention, diminishing any depth which is key to making this piece work. I think you are trying to show too much without letting the piece speak for itself. If you really want this to be good then I'd take it back to square one and start with thumbnails. Nothing will save this from the basic issues.

And on top of erosion, waterfalls that huge would never be clear and they would be likely to spray water mist that'd engulf the whole town there.Attachment 1364998Attachment 1364999

Also since there seems to be stalactites on the ceiling there, it's bit unlikely that the ground around the town would be that flat, as stalactites drip water down and eventually create stalagmites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalactite as you've drawn on the background there. Unless the villagers constantly smoothen the ground around their village and on the other side of the river, I'd expect less sharp and smooth surroundings.

I admit, I've focused so much on the waterfalls the rest does seem to have become a throw away. They are really throwing me in terms of how to paint them. I know they should be more frothy, and therefore whiter. At the same time I know they are falling into a very unlit area and I can't envision how exactly that would look. GIS is lacking in this particular imagery; most every subterranean fall is small and artificially lit.

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The undeground city!! is rather too small as has been said a few times already, so as a change of pace make it a single dwelling and make it more of a focus. The attention is all on the underground waterfalls at the moment so make them smaller and less distinct.

If you want an underground city in there you need to go way back to thumbnails and rethink the composition mate sorry I really cant see you pulling this rabbit out of the hat without a restart.

Here's a quick value study of my favorite of the two. I'm consideringscrapping the human element; something like that vying with a huge waterfall feels like it's creating a conflict of interest of sorts.

I absoloutely love the second one its much more interesting and gives you much more room to play and experiment, but I would straighten up the waterfall so that its back in that eroded gully. Another thing you could possibly do would be to make it a temple and other subordinate buildings. That would look pretty cool I think, but you would have to be careful with the lighting and sources.

I think you are onto something about there being more room to work in. Here's the second one with values put in. As far a the cave's denizens go, I'm going to stick with something a little more primitive, stick and grass huts, some stone tools and communal fire pits and the like strewn around.